


Confessions, Reveal

by kwamii



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, I guess this is a reveal fic, OOC for these dummies finally figuring something out for themselves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 05:24:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10735023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwamii/pseuds/kwamii
Summary: Marinette thinks it's time to confess to Adrien, with the help of the persona she knows he likes... but it might help if she stopped overthinking // light side alternate ending to one of my ML Angst Week fics





	Confessions, Reveal

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a comment left on the angsty Confessions / Reveal piece and I was like How COuld I Not Do This Now and give it a happy ending
> 
> [Here's the fic in question for some context as to what the heck Marinette is trying to achieve](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10664433/chapters/23716296)

Marinette had never dreamed to hope that Adrien might notice her - to be fair, he'd noticed the _other_ her, but Marinette was far too excited to care about the details right now. Adrien liked her! He liked Ladybug!

This led to an unannounced appearance by the hero in question in the Paris skyline, leaping from roof to roof with her heart pounding so hard she thought it might be audible from the streets below, or maybe Adrien would hear her coming from a block away. But if he hadn't noticed her storming heartbeat around him all these months, she supposed she might still have a chance of seeming cool and relaxed when she came to face him.

That was nice, she supposed absently; imagine being relaxed in front of Adrien (unthinkable). But if she pulled this one off, she'd find herself with a lot more time to spend around him, and she could finally practise that important skill. That is, if her plan worked out - or one of her plans, she hadn't yet decided on her exact course of action.

Having uncovered Adrien's secret crush on her alter ego, she'd set her mind on visiting him; of all her opportunities, she wouldn't let this one go to waste. If he liked Ladybug, that surely meant he must like at least some part of Marinette, and she just needed to figure out if she wanted to reveal her familiar self to him, or if she was just going to make the most of her charming superhero self.

She'd figure out her exact plan later. Now, she swung over to the Agreste mansion, dangling from a ledge, and reached for the window. She peered in, pressing her face close and squinting her eyes against the sky's reflection to see what went on within. She couldn't see Adrien in there.

This slight, fundamental hitch in her plan suddenly set her thoughts aflame. What was she doing here? Why had she come? She realised now that her reasoning in coming was stupid, senseless. It wasn't as though she was a stranger to him; Adrien _knew_ her as Marinette, and there wasn't anything there for a reason. Ladybug and Marinette were not the same person, not where it mattered most. It wasn't Marinette he liked, but someone vastly different, a whole other person. If she told him, he wouldn't instantly fall in love with her. She couldn't expect him to.

What was she doing? 

Marinette began to panic.

* * *

There was a simple reason for Adrien not being in his room, and that was dinner. 

Mealtimes in the Agreste house were cold and lonely, since his father so often took his meals in his office, and Nathalie couldn't always be persuaded to sit with him. Adrien was often in a rush to leave and return to his room, but Plagg's inhuman appetite often kept him. But tonight, his kwami was eager to get him back upstairs; "You'll never believe this."

And he didn't believe it, when he saw exactly what Plagg was referring to. When he stepped into his room and saw the bright patch of red outside his window, he shook his head in disbelief. Why would she be here, of all places? Yes, she'd protected him once or twice, but to come to his house for some other, mysterious reason, was an entirely different matter. For a moment, Adrien let himself hope that she had come for his company... but he realised how stupid that was, and that she probably just needed something from him.

"Maybe she's here for medical attention," Plagg deadpans, addressing his own concerns.

The usually implacable Ladybug was strung up outside his window, caught in some strange paroxysm. Her hand reached for the window, clenched, retracted, quivering. Her face, tilted to the side, cycled through the full range of emotions in a matter of moments, then returned to the old expressions and shuddered over the same frames like a broken tape; her mouth now open like a yell, then biting her lip, then she winces and screws her eyes shut, then she grimaces and shakes her head, then seeming almost wistful, then something entirely different. Her face was as red as her suit, and her body is tense. It was almost a miracle that she was still swinging from her cord, the way her muscles were clenched.

Adrien stepped closer, frowing, "It looks like she's talking to herself."

"I still think it looks like she's dying."

This unsettled behaviour was untoward, and Adrien felt a sharp shock of anxiety rock through him. Ladybug was brave and strong, and sure, she was human, he'd seen her stumble before, but this was on a whole other level. He felt that he was intruding on a very private moment, but that begged the question; what was she doing having this private moment outside his, Adrien Agreste's, window? Nothing added up here.

He took another step to knock on the window to get her attention, but without looking up she suddenly jerked and tautened, and zipped off into the streets of Paris again.

So strange. Now his concern rocketed through the roof. Something was definitely up, and he had a faint idea what.

"Claws out!"

Plagg couldn't argue, because Chat Noir was already chasing his lady through the rooftops of Paris. He could see from her retreating shadow - if not from her earlier strange behaviour - that something was off. She never stumbled like this, not since their very first fight. Her fist were clenched, and her step was awkward. What had happened to her?

He yelled her name, and she was oblivious to it, and kept veering across the rooftops, clumsy and almost blind. Chat Noir suspected an akuma, and he needed to snap his lady out of it (and maybe afterwards, he could have that company of hers he'd originally hoped for).

"Ladybug!" he shouted again.

This time, she whirled around, teetering around on the edge of the roof, and almost losing her balance - if not for Chat extending a hand and pulling her towards him. She thudded into him, and now it was his turn to lose his balance, and they both wavered in their step for a moment.

When they righted themselves, Chat gave her his most charming smile, trying to disguise that layer of worry that niggled at him, "What are you doing out so late, my lady?"

She shrugged wildly, still red, "Nothing. What about you?"

"Just checking the situation out. I got some reports of some strange behaviour around here."

Her blank, anxious stare now sharpened, "You think it's Hawkmoth?"

"I'm not sure. You tell me."

She frowned at him and stepped back, removing his hands from her, "I haven't heard or seen anything. What do you mean?"

"Do you often hang out at strange boys' windows?"

The look in her eyes loosened again, the blush evolved, "Oh."

"Is something wrong?" and when she avoided his gaze, "Has there been some kind of cat-astrophe, my lady?"

"Only your contrived puns."

"You wound me."

Ladybug shrugged, and gathered a little strength into her body, squaring her shoulders and facing him, "But to answer your question, nothing was wrong. I think I might have _made_ it wrong, but..."

He took her by those steeled shoulders, "What happened?"

"Do you think... I mean, it's personal, is it okay if I talk to you about it?"

Personal. Adrien felt again the thrum of curiosity - if it was personal and Ladybug had come to _him_... could he dare to have such hope? "I want to know if something is troubling you. We're teammates, after all," and he loved her, and he knew the strength she carried in her and he wanted to keep that fire lit.

She nodded, and let out a slow sigh, "There's a guy I like," she confessed, twiddling her thumbs, "And I found out today that he likes me back, except for the fact he only likes me when I'm in this suit. And I don't know. I thought it might be a good time to confess to him, but I can't _use_ him? I can't manipulate him into liking every dumb part of me by detransforming. I feel like an idiot..." then, going rigid again, "Oh, but you know. Sort of. Don't tell him, please, the reason why I was outisde. He doesn't need to know. I know he probably, like, asked you to find out, but I just want to put it behind me. I just want to put his crush behind me."

Adrien listened to this, and he could feel the pieces click into place, and he was sure she would be able to see the flash and click of recognition beneath his mask. His Ladybug liked him back. Not the version of him that he expected her to, but it was important to him that she was interested, somehow. She'd been rebuffing his advances probably because she was guarding her heart, hoping, for someone else - and that happened to be him. He already held the key to his lady's heart. The elation flooded into his face.

She did not fail to notice this, and quirked a hollow smile, "I didn't think, given your endless proclamations of love for me, you'd look so happy."

"Who are you?" he beamed, seizing her hands in his.

She blinked, "Excuse me?"

"You have to know me, right?"

"I mean, we fight akumas together..."

He barely noticed the strange look she was giving him. He was thinking; who had Nino told? Other than Alya, Marinette...

Ladybug, panicking on his windowsill. A sight very uncharacteristic of his partner, but one he saw near-daily in Marinette, clumsy, loveable, wonderful Marinette. The truth, great and undeniable, hit him at once, along with the impulse to gather her up into his arms and hold her tight against him.

Which he did, catching her off guard, and she began to protest; the redness that rose in her skin warm against his neck and chest. Marinette. There was no better person to be his Ladybug, no one he trusted more. This was the perfect ending.

"Chat, what are you-"

"I'll explain later. For the moment, I think you need a hug."

If he'd known how many more opportunities he would have to hug her after he explained his new revelation, he might have let go sooner and hurried that explanation along. As it was, he savoured the contact from which she did not, this time, pull away and replace with a high five. He was relieved to feel her body finally still, the last dregs of her corporal worry absorb into his embrace - but when he told her the quivering started anew, and she caught him up in another hug, smiling the widest he had ever seen.

Wrapped in his lady's arms, Adrien made a mental note to thank Nino Lahiffe for his services to beef (and romance) at another time. For now, he knew there was nowhere he'd rather be than by Marinette's side.


End file.
